Monday, September 27, 2010
Kafka query
What is The Trial about? There are about 20 different topics. You must read the posts before you. No duplicates allowed. Due 6 p.m. Sunday.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Kafka
An ambitious, worldly young bank official named Joseph K. is arrested by two warders "one fine morning," although he has done nothing wrong. K. is indignant and outraged. The morning happens to be that of his thirtieth birthday. One year later, on the morning of his thirty-first birthday, two warders again come for K. They take him to a quarry outside of town and kill him in the name of the Law. K. lets them.
The Trial is the chronicle of that intervening year of K.'s case, his struggles and encounters with the invisible Law and the untouchable Court. It is an account, ultimately, of state-induced self-destruction. Yet, as in all of Kafka's best writing, the "meaning" is far from clear. Just as the parable related by the chaplain in Chapter Nine (called "The Doorkeeper" or "Before the Law") elicits endless commentary from students of the Law, so has The Trial been a touchstone of twentieth-century critical interpretation. As some commentators have noted, it has, in parts, the quality of revealed truth; as such it is ultimately unresolvable--a mirror for any sectarian reading.
How to summarize this kind of text? It was written during 1914-1915, while Kafka was an official in the Workmen's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. On one level we can see in The Trial a satirical pillorying of the Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy of Kafka's day. Yet to many readers it is eerily prescient of the psychological weaponry used by the much more insidious totalitarian regimes to come, of the legally-sanctioned death machines Kafka never lived to see. It is also an unfinished novel, and this is apparent in the final chapters. It is at times as suffocating to read as the airless rooms of the Court that it describes. The German title, Der Prozess, connotes both a "trial" and a "process," and it is perhaps this maddening feeling of inevitability that leaves a lasting visceral impression: the machinery has been set in motion, and the process will grind toward conclusion despite our most desperate exhortations.
Characters
Joseph K. - The hero and protagonist of the novel, K. is the Chief Clerk of a bank. Ambitious, shrewd, more competent than kind, he is on the fast track to success until he is arrested one morning for no reason. There begins his slide into desperation as he tries to grapple with an all-powerful Court and an invisible Law.
Fraulein Burstner - A boarder in the same house as Joseph K. She lets him kiss her one night, but then rebuffs his advances. She makes a brief reappearance in the novel's final pages.
Frau Grubach - The proprietress of the lodging house in which K. lives. She holds K. in high esteem.
Uncle Karl - K.'s impetuous uncle from the country, formerly his guardian. Karl insists that K. hire Huld, the lawyer.
Huld, the Lawyer - K.'s fustian advocate who provides precious little in the way of action and far too much in the way of anecdote.
Leni - Herr Huld's nurse, she's on fire for Joseph K. She soon becomes his lover. Apparently, she finds accused men extremely attractive--the fact of their indictment makes them irresistible to her.
Assistant Manager - K.'s unctuous rival at the Bank, only too willing to catch K. in a compromising situation.
Block, the Tradesman - Block is another accused man and client of Huld. His case is five year's old, and he is but a shadow of the prosperous man he once was. All his time, energy, and resources are now devoted to his case. Although he has hired hack lawyers on the side, he is completely and pathetically subservient to Huld.
Titorelli, the Painter - Titorelli inherited the position of Court Painter from his father. He knows a great deal about the comings and goings of the Court's lowest level. He offers to help K., and manages to unload a few identical landscape paintings on the accused man. If the novel had been finished, we might have heard more from Titorelli.
The Trial is the chronicle of that intervening year of K.'s case, his struggles and encounters with the invisible Law and the untouchable Court. It is an account, ultimately, of state-induced self-destruction. Yet, as in all of Kafka's best writing, the "meaning" is far from clear. Just as the parable related by the chaplain in Chapter Nine (called "The Doorkeeper" or "Before the Law") elicits endless commentary from students of the Law, so has The Trial been a touchstone of twentieth-century critical interpretation. As some commentators have noted, it has, in parts, the quality of revealed truth; as such it is ultimately unresolvable--a mirror for any sectarian reading.
How to summarize this kind of text? It was written during 1914-1915, while Kafka was an official in the Workmen's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. On one level we can see in The Trial a satirical pillorying of the Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy of Kafka's day. Yet to many readers it is eerily prescient of the psychological weaponry used by the much more insidious totalitarian regimes to come, of the legally-sanctioned death machines Kafka never lived to see. It is also an unfinished novel, and this is apparent in the final chapters. It is at times as suffocating to read as the airless rooms of the Court that it describes. The German title, Der Prozess, connotes both a "trial" and a "process," and it is perhaps this maddening feeling of inevitability that leaves a lasting visceral impression: the machinery has been set in motion, and the process will grind toward conclusion despite our most desperate exhortations.
Characters
Joseph K. - The hero and protagonist of the novel, K. is the Chief Clerk of a bank. Ambitious, shrewd, more competent than kind, he is on the fast track to success until he is arrested one morning for no reason. There begins his slide into desperation as he tries to grapple with an all-powerful Court and an invisible Law.
Fraulein Burstner - A boarder in the same house as Joseph K. She lets him kiss her one night, but then rebuffs his advances. She makes a brief reappearance in the novel's final pages.
Frau Grubach - The proprietress of the lodging house in which K. lives. She holds K. in high esteem.
Uncle Karl - K.'s impetuous uncle from the country, formerly his guardian. Karl insists that K. hire Huld, the lawyer.
Huld, the Lawyer - K.'s fustian advocate who provides precious little in the way of action and far too much in the way of anecdote.
Leni - Herr Huld's nurse, she's on fire for Joseph K. She soon becomes his lover. Apparently, she finds accused men extremely attractive--the fact of their indictment makes them irresistible to her.
Assistant Manager - K.'s unctuous rival at the Bank, only too willing to catch K. in a compromising situation.
Block, the Tradesman - Block is another accused man and client of Huld. His case is five year's old, and he is but a shadow of the prosperous man he once was. All his time, energy, and resources are now devoted to his case. Although he has hired hack lawyers on the side, he is completely and pathetically subservient to Huld.
Titorelli, the Painter - Titorelli inherited the position of Court Painter from his father. He knows a great deal about the comings and goings of the Court's lowest level. He offers to help K., and manages to unload a few identical landscape paintings on the accused man. If the novel had been finished, we might have heard more from Titorelli.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Freud postings
Note: questions are assigned based on alphabetical order.
About 50-75 words. You should reference page numbers (p. X).
Last names:
A-G: Articulate the Pleasure Principle (positive and negative)
H-M: What are the Three Sources of Human Suffering?
N-P: Is Civilization as a Source of Our Unhappiness, Our Malaise or Discontent? (How Does Civilization Emerge?)
Q-Scott: Explain the Aggressive Instinct and the Generation of the Super-Ego
Shirley-Stewart: Explain the Super-Ego and the Sense of "Guilt"
Stvartak-Z: What are the implications of Freudian theory?
About 50-75 words. You should reference page numbers (p. X).
Last names:
A-G: Articulate the Pleasure Principle (positive and negative)
H-M: What are the Three Sources of Human Suffering?
N-P: Is Civilization as a Source of Our Unhappiness, Our Malaise or Discontent? (How Does Civilization Emerge?)
Q-Scott: Explain the Aggressive Instinct and the Generation of the Super-Ego
Shirley-Stewart: Explain the Super-Ego and the Sense of "Guilt"
Stvartak-Z: What are the implications of Freudian theory?
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Civilization and Its Discontents
About Civilization and Its Discontents
Civilization and Its Discontents, which Freud wrote in the summer of 1929, compares "civilized" and "savage"
human lives in order to reflect upon the meaning of civilization in general. Like many of his later works, the
essay generalizes the psycho-sexual theories that Freud introduced earlier in his career - the Oedipal conflict, the
theories of sexual impulses, repression, displacement and sublimation. Whereas before Freud was interested in
specific neurotics, one might say that in Civilization Freud expands his interest to identifying the neurotic
aspects of society itself. He extends his inquiry from man-in-particular to man-in-general.
The work is frankly pessimistic in tone, and many commentators have attributed this dark view to the
devastating experience of the First World War. This horrible conflict seems to have justified his insistence on
the violent and cruel nature of humanity. Earlier, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), Freud revised his
earlier thesis that human beings are driven by a desire for erotic fulfillment by proposing that humans are
equally driven by a desire for destruction. This theory of the "death-drive," which Freud formulated in the midst
of the war, finds a wider application in Civilization.
From a chronological standpoint, this essay extends most immediately on Freud's reflections in The Future of an
Illusion (1927), in which Freud describes organized religion as a collective neurosis. Freud argues that religion
performed a great service for civilization by taming asocial instincts and creating a sense of community around
a shared set of beliefs, but it has also exacted an enormous psychological cost to the individual by making him
perpetually subordinate to the primal father figure embodied by God. An avowed atheist, Freud refines his
theories in Civilization and Its Discontents to outline more emphatically the relation between psychoanalysis
and religion, as well as between the individual and civilization.
Published in 1930, Civilization and Its Discontents has never been out-of-print. It was perhaps Freud's most
widely-read essay during his lifetime and it continues to be among his most influential studies. It stands as an
authoritative analysis of culture and human civilization, made more relevant by the atrocities committed in the
following decades, particularly the Nazi Holocaust, Stalinist genocides, and nuclear bombs dropped on civilian
populations in Japan. Some have pointed to the prophetic nature of Freud's observations about the destructive
currents running throughout human civilization; indeed, Adolf Hitler's 1933 rise to power by democratic
majority found in Freud a personal historical witness to the phenomenon that he had previously attempted to
account for in psychoanalytic terms in his writings.
Civilization and Its Discontents, which Freud wrote in the summer of 1929, compares "civilized" and "savage"
human lives in order to reflect upon the meaning of civilization in general. Like many of his later works, the
essay generalizes the psycho-sexual theories that Freud introduced earlier in his career - the Oedipal conflict, the
theories of sexual impulses, repression, displacement and sublimation. Whereas before Freud was interested in
specific neurotics, one might say that in Civilization Freud expands his interest to identifying the neurotic
aspects of society itself. He extends his inquiry from man-in-particular to man-in-general.
The work is frankly pessimistic in tone, and many commentators have attributed this dark view to the
devastating experience of the First World War. This horrible conflict seems to have justified his insistence on
the violent and cruel nature of humanity. Earlier, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), Freud revised his
earlier thesis that human beings are driven by a desire for erotic fulfillment by proposing that humans are
equally driven by a desire for destruction. This theory of the "death-drive," which Freud formulated in the midst
of the war, finds a wider application in Civilization.
From a chronological standpoint, this essay extends most immediately on Freud's reflections in The Future of an
Illusion (1927), in which Freud describes organized religion as a collective neurosis. Freud argues that religion
performed a great service for civilization by taming asocial instincts and creating a sense of community around
a shared set of beliefs, but it has also exacted an enormous psychological cost to the individual by making him
perpetually subordinate to the primal father figure embodied by God. An avowed atheist, Freud refines his
theories in Civilization and Its Discontents to outline more emphatically the relation between psychoanalysis
and religion, as well as between the individual and civilization.
Published in 1930, Civilization and Its Discontents has never been out-of-print. It was perhaps Freud's most
widely-read essay during his lifetime and it continues to be among his most influential studies. It stands as an
authoritative analysis of culture and human civilization, made more relevant by the atrocities committed in the
following decades, particularly the Nazi Holocaust, Stalinist genocides, and nuclear bombs dropped on civilian
populations in Japan. Some have pointed to the prophetic nature of Freud's observations about the destructive
currents running throughout human civilization; indeed, Adolf Hitler's 1933 rise to power by democratic
majority found in Freud a personal historical witness to the phenomenon that he had previously attempted to
account for in psychoanalytic terms in his writings.
Sigmund Freud
On May 6, 1856, Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born in the small Moravian town of Freiberg. His parents were Jakob and Amalie Freud. Over the next six years Amalie gave birth to six more children. Sigmund was always the favorite child. Jakob's textile business failed, and in 1860, the family moved to Vienna, spending almost a year in Leipzig on the way. In Vienna, Freud was a studious and serious child. He was schooled at home, first by his mother and then by his father, and then he joined the Sperl Gymnasium, where he was at the top of his class.
In 1873, Freud graduated from the Sperl Gymnasium at the early age of seventeen and started medical training at the University of Vienna. It took him eight years to receive his medical degree, in part because he was distracted by scientific research. This was especially true in the later years of his medical studies (1877–1881), when was working in the laboratory of his mentor, Ernst Brücke, on the anatomy of the brain.
1881 was a momentous year for Freud: he met Martha Bernays and became engaged to her–secretly, at first–and he finally received his medical degree. In 1882, he left Brücke's lab and took a position at the Vienna General Hospital, motivated in part by his desire to make enough money to be able to marry Martha. Over the next five years he moved from department to department at the hospital, passing through surgery and dermatology before coming to rest at Theodor Meynert's department of psychiatry. In the winter of 1885–1886, Freud went to Paris to study under Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière. He was finally married to Martha Bernays in the summer of 1886. They first married in a civil ceremony, but when they discovered that Austria (unlike Germany) would not officially recognize a nonreligious marriage, they married in a Jewish one.
Over the next ten years, from 1886–1896, Freud continued to develop his private practice. By the beginning of the 1890s, his relationship with Josef Breuer, another Jewish neurologist, had flourished. The two men had collaborated on the publication of a series of case studies on their patients called Studies on Hysteria. This contained one case study by Breuer and four by Freud. The case study by Breuer, on the patient "Anna O.", is known as the first psychoanalytic case study. In it, Breuer discusses the "cathartic method" he used to cure Anna O.'s symptoms by discovering, with her help, the earlier, unconscious traumas that were associated with her symptoms. Although Freud was enthusiastic about the new method, his emphasis on the exclusively sexual causes of hysteria made his theories unpopular, not only with his superiors at the University, but also with Breuer.
From 1896–1901, in a period of isolation from his colleagues, Freud developed the basics of psychoanalytic theory out of the raw material of his patients, his conversations with Breuer, and his correspondence with a new friend, the Berlin nose and throat doctor Wilhelm Fliess. In 1899, Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, the first fully fleshed-out psychoanalytic work, was published. Freud was deeply disappointed by its lackluster reception, but he continued writing. His The Psychopathology of Everyday Life was published in 1901, and his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality was published in 1905.
In the 1900s, Freud finally emerged from the isolation that had characterized his professional life in the 1890s. He began to have weekly meetings at his house to discuss psychoanalytic theory. The group that met at his house was called the "Wednesday Psychological Society," and eventually it grew into the Vienna Psycho-Analytic Society. By 1904, Freud had begun to hear of other neurologists and psychiatrists using his techniques. He was particularly excited to hear that the well-respected Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler and one of Bleuler's staff members, Carl G. Jung, had taken an interest. Toward the end of the decade, psychoanalysis became a truly international affair: the International Psychoanalytic Association was founded with the help of supporters from Germany, Austria (Alfred Adler and Wilhelm Stekel), Switzerland, Hungary (Sandor Ferenczi), and England (Ernest Jones). In the years before the First World War, psychoanalysis experienced its first growing pains: first Jung, then Adler and Stekel, left the organization after bitter disagreements with Freud. In response to these defections, Jones and Freud created a secret "Committee" to protect psychoanalysis. The committee consisted of Jones, Ferenczi, Karl Abraham, Otto Rank, and Hanns Sachs.
During World War I, Freud continued to write and lecture, but patients were few and international communications were impossible. When the war ended, however, the International Psychoanalytic Association resumed its meetings in an atmosphere much more conducive to psychoanalysis than that before the war. Unfortunately, the post-war years were extremely difficult in Vienna: inflation was rampant, supplies were few, and patients were rare. Freud's reputation, however, was growing, and in 1919 he was made a full professor at the University of Vienna.
Freud's work from 1919 to the end of his life in 1938 became increasingly speculative. He became concerned with applying psychoanalysis to questions of civilization and society, an approach that he had first tried in his 1913 Totem and Taboo. In 1920, he published Beyond the Pleasure Principle, which suggested that human existence is a struggle between Eros, or the sex drive, and an instinct toward death.
In 1923, Freud was diagnosed with mouth cancer, a consequence of his life-long habit of cigar smoking. His illness would trouble him until his death in 1938, demanding in the meantime thirty-three separate operations that caused him pain and made it difficult for him to speak and eat. The 1920s were a complicated decade for Freud. He was undeniably successful, even famous, but his own health, several deaths in his family, and the disintegration of the Committee made his success bittersweet.
In the 1930s, Freud continued to treat patients and to write. He published one of his most frequently read books, Civilization and Its Discontents, in 1930. The rise of Nazism in Germany, however, and its echoes in Austria, made life in Vienna increasingly untenable. Freud stayed as long as he could, but when the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938 and raided his house, he fled to England with most of his family. He died there on September 23, 1939.
In 1873, Freud graduated from the Sperl Gymnasium at the early age of seventeen and started medical training at the University of Vienna. It took him eight years to receive his medical degree, in part because he was distracted by scientific research. This was especially true in the later years of his medical studies (1877–1881), when was working in the laboratory of his mentor, Ernst Brücke, on the anatomy of the brain.
1881 was a momentous year for Freud: he met Martha Bernays and became engaged to her–secretly, at first–and he finally received his medical degree. In 1882, he left Brücke's lab and took a position at the Vienna General Hospital, motivated in part by his desire to make enough money to be able to marry Martha. Over the next five years he moved from department to department at the hospital, passing through surgery and dermatology before coming to rest at Theodor Meynert's department of psychiatry. In the winter of 1885–1886, Freud went to Paris to study under Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière. He was finally married to Martha Bernays in the summer of 1886. They first married in a civil ceremony, but when they discovered that Austria (unlike Germany) would not officially recognize a nonreligious marriage, they married in a Jewish one.
Over the next ten years, from 1886–1896, Freud continued to develop his private practice. By the beginning of the 1890s, his relationship with Josef Breuer, another Jewish neurologist, had flourished. The two men had collaborated on the publication of a series of case studies on their patients called Studies on Hysteria. This contained one case study by Breuer and four by Freud. The case study by Breuer, on the patient "Anna O.", is known as the first psychoanalytic case study. In it, Breuer discusses the "cathartic method" he used to cure Anna O.'s symptoms by discovering, with her help, the earlier, unconscious traumas that were associated with her symptoms. Although Freud was enthusiastic about the new method, his emphasis on the exclusively sexual causes of hysteria made his theories unpopular, not only with his superiors at the University, but also with Breuer.
From 1896–1901, in a period of isolation from his colleagues, Freud developed the basics of psychoanalytic theory out of the raw material of his patients, his conversations with Breuer, and his correspondence with a new friend, the Berlin nose and throat doctor Wilhelm Fliess. In 1899, Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, the first fully fleshed-out psychoanalytic work, was published. Freud was deeply disappointed by its lackluster reception, but he continued writing. His The Psychopathology of Everyday Life was published in 1901, and his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality was published in 1905.
In the 1900s, Freud finally emerged from the isolation that had characterized his professional life in the 1890s. He began to have weekly meetings at his house to discuss psychoanalytic theory. The group that met at his house was called the "Wednesday Psychological Society," and eventually it grew into the Vienna Psycho-Analytic Society. By 1904, Freud had begun to hear of other neurologists and psychiatrists using his techniques. He was particularly excited to hear that the well-respected Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler and one of Bleuler's staff members, Carl G. Jung, had taken an interest. Toward the end of the decade, psychoanalysis became a truly international affair: the International Psychoanalytic Association was founded with the help of supporters from Germany, Austria (Alfred Adler and Wilhelm Stekel), Switzerland, Hungary (Sandor Ferenczi), and England (Ernest Jones). In the years before the First World War, psychoanalysis experienced its first growing pains: first Jung, then Adler and Stekel, left the organization after bitter disagreements with Freud. In response to these defections, Jones and Freud created a secret "Committee" to protect psychoanalysis. The committee consisted of Jones, Ferenczi, Karl Abraham, Otto Rank, and Hanns Sachs.
During World War I, Freud continued to write and lecture, but patients were few and international communications were impossible. When the war ended, however, the International Psychoanalytic Association resumed its meetings in an atmosphere much more conducive to psychoanalysis than that before the war. Unfortunately, the post-war years were extremely difficult in Vienna: inflation was rampant, supplies were few, and patients were rare. Freud's reputation, however, was growing, and in 1919 he was made a full professor at the University of Vienna.
Freud's work from 1919 to the end of his life in 1938 became increasingly speculative. He became concerned with applying psychoanalysis to questions of civilization and society, an approach that he had first tried in his 1913 Totem and Taboo. In 1920, he published Beyond the Pleasure Principle, which suggested that human existence is a struggle between Eros, or the sex drive, and an instinct toward death.
In 1923, Freud was diagnosed with mouth cancer, a consequence of his life-long habit of cigar smoking. His illness would trouble him until his death in 1938, demanding in the meantime thirty-three separate operations that caused him pain and made it difficult for him to speak and eat. The 1920s were a complicated decade for Freud. He was undeniably successful, even famous, but his own health, several deaths in his family, and the disintegration of the Committee made his success bittersweet.
In the 1930s, Freud continued to treat patients and to write. He published one of his most frequently read books, Civilization and Its Discontents, in 1930. The rise of Nazism in Germany, however, and its echoes in Austria, made life in Vienna increasingly untenable. Freud stayed as long as he could, but when the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938 and raided his house, he fled to England with most of his family. He died there on September 23, 1939.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Microcultures
Microcultures
Dr. Marybeth Peebles, associate professor at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio
* = those microcultures that are immutable
** = the dominant subcultures
A. Class (socioeconomic status) (how define? Look at census information at www.census.gov)
1. Underclass – below poverty level, homeless
2. Working class - lower middle class, blue collar
3. Middle class – white collar and low-level managerial / administrative **
4. Upper middle class – professionals, high-level managerial / administrative
5. Upper class – professionals, top-level managerial / administrative, inherited wealth and social status
B. Race *
1. Caucasian (Whites) **
2. African American (Blacks)
3. American Indian, Eskimo
4. Asian / Pacific Islander
5. Hispanic
6. Other
C. Ethnicity *
1. Western European **
2. Central / Eastern European
3. Asian
4. African
5. Latino. Hispanic is not a race, it is an ethnic designation
6. Other
D. Gender / sexual orientation *
1. Male **
2. Female
3. Heterosexual **
4. Homosexual
5. Bisexual
6. Transgender
E. Language
1. Monolingual (English only) **
2. Bilingual (English as primary language)
3. ESL (English as a second language)
4. Multilingual (fluent in more than two languages)
F. Religion
1. Christianity – Protestantism **
2. Christianity – Catholicism
3. Christianity – Other (e.g. Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Christian Scientist)
4. Eastern Orthodox
5. Judaism
6. Islam
7. Buddhism
8. Hindu
9. Other
G. Exceptionality *
1. Non-disabled **
2. Physically disabled
3. Mentally retarded
4. Learning disabled
5. Gifted / talented / precocity
H. Age *
1. Infancy
2. Youth
3. Adolescence
4. Young adulthood **
5. Middle age
6. Aged (elderly)
Geography
1. Regional (e.g. Midwest, New England, Southwest, etc.)
2. Location (e.g. urban, suburban, rural)
3. Environmental (e.g. mountains, desert, coastal)
Dr. Marybeth Peebles, associate professor at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio
* = those microcultures that are immutable
** = the dominant subcultures
A. Class (socioeconomic status) (how define? Look at census information at www.census.gov)
1. Underclass – below poverty level, homeless
2. Working class - lower middle class, blue collar
3. Middle class – white collar and low-level managerial / administrative **
4. Upper middle class – professionals, high-level managerial / administrative
5. Upper class – professionals, top-level managerial / administrative, inherited wealth and social status
B. Race *
1. Caucasian (Whites) **
2. African American (Blacks)
3. American Indian, Eskimo
4. Asian / Pacific Islander
5. Hispanic
6. Other
C. Ethnicity *
1. Western European **
2. Central / Eastern European
3. Asian
4. African
5. Latino. Hispanic is not a race, it is an ethnic designation
6. Other
D. Gender / sexual orientation *
1. Male **
2. Female
3. Heterosexual **
4. Homosexual
5. Bisexual
6. Transgender
E. Language
1. Monolingual (English only) **
2. Bilingual (English as primary language)
3. ESL (English as a second language)
4. Multilingual (fluent in more than two languages)
F. Religion
1. Christianity – Protestantism **
2. Christianity – Catholicism
3. Christianity – Other (e.g. Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Christian Scientist)
4. Eastern Orthodox
5. Judaism
6. Islam
7. Buddhism
8. Hindu
9. Other
G. Exceptionality *
1. Non-disabled **
2. Physically disabled
3. Mentally retarded
4. Learning disabled
5. Gifted / talented / precocity
H. Age *
1. Infancy
2. Youth
3. Adolescence
4. Young adulthood **
5. Middle age
6. Aged (elderly)
Geography
1. Regional (e.g. Midwest, New England, Southwest, etc.)
2. Location (e.g. urban, suburban, rural)
3. Environmental (e.g. mountains, desert, coastal)
Cultural Autobiography, Due Sept. 20
Criteria for Self-Reflective Cultural Autobiography
Learning objective: Students will demonstrate an understanding of their past and present as it relates to themselves and others within society.
Grading: Based on grammar, spelling, essay structure; quality of presentation and expression of thoughts; inclusion of microculture elements.
A cultural autobiography is a reflective, self-analytic story of your past and present.
In this assignment you are going to examine some of your own experiences. Your essay will focus on your life and how that has shaped you. You may include typical and/or exceptional events from your childhood, religious life, family life, memorable experiences. This might include a family vacation, a mission trip or a sporting event.
You do not have to answer all the questions posed in this assignment. They are given to prompt your thinking about the topic.
Consider starting off by describing an artifact that reflects your cultural practices, values, history, or beliefs.
You need to describe your experiences in detail. Use whatever description, scenes, dialogues and so on that you wish. You may write the essay in the first person. For dialogue be as true to the speaker’s actual words as you can recall.
Note, a cultural autobiography is more merely narrating events from your life. It reveals your assumptions and seeks to bring out preconceived notions in relation to the micro-cultures and subgroups that make up identity and your role. In a multicultural world, understanding your own cultural identity as well as being more open to others is extremely important in society. Consider the culture as described in the Bookseller of Kabul. Recall the relationship restrictions between men and women, between the family and the Afghan society.
According to Dr. Marybeth Peebles, an associate professor at Marietta College, there are nine micro-cultures: socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, religion, gender/sexual orientation, language, exceptionality (mentally or physically disabled or gifted), age and geography.
What cultural groups do you identify with? Discuss your birth and family of origin. Who are your family members? Talk about the cultural history of your parents, grandparents, and if significant, your great-grandparents. Where are they from? What is the primary language, race, religion, culture of your origin? Describe your upbringing. What do you remember about the neighborhood(s) in which you lived? What ethnic groups resided therein? Was there a predominant group? What do your recall about your neighborhood: focus in particular regarding attitudes about those who were “different” from you? What was the talk at the dinner table? Were there any teachings that may influence how you feel about any group outside your own?
Examine the subgroups (posted on Blackboard under this week’s folder) and your roles within them, in relation to each micro-culture. The subgroups, are where you fall in the micro-culture.
Consider how your experiences within the cultural subgroups that you inhabit have shaped your personality and identity in relation to others in your life who may fall into different cultural subgroups. For example, the only twins experience life differently than non-multiples.
Discuss your family culture in terms of values, beliefs, and goals about life success/failure that you have learned. What are some verbal and non-verbal communication skills you have learned from your family? How has your cultural background affected your present beliefs about yourself and others? Talk about how your cultural background has shaped your views about race, class, gender, ability, and sexuality? What messages did you receive about these topics growing up, and what are your current beliefs? How has your culture helped or hindered you in your schooling/teaching?
Conclude with a summary of your cultural identity based on experiences that you have discussed. Wrap up the discussion neatly and succinctly.
Learning objective: Students will demonstrate an understanding of their past and present as it relates to themselves and others within society.
Grading: Based on grammar, spelling, essay structure; quality of presentation and expression of thoughts; inclusion of microculture elements.
A cultural autobiography is a reflective, self-analytic story of your past and present.
In this assignment you are going to examine some of your own experiences. Your essay will focus on your life and how that has shaped you. You may include typical and/or exceptional events from your childhood, religious life, family life, memorable experiences. This might include a family vacation, a mission trip or a sporting event.
You do not have to answer all the questions posed in this assignment. They are given to prompt your thinking about the topic.
Consider starting off by describing an artifact that reflects your cultural practices, values, history, or beliefs.
You need to describe your experiences in detail. Use whatever description, scenes, dialogues and so on that you wish. You may write the essay in the first person. For dialogue be as true to the speaker’s actual words as you can recall.
Note, a cultural autobiography is more merely narrating events from your life. It reveals your assumptions and seeks to bring out preconceived notions in relation to the micro-cultures and subgroups that make up identity and your role. In a multicultural world, understanding your own cultural identity as well as being more open to others is extremely important in society. Consider the culture as described in the Bookseller of Kabul. Recall the relationship restrictions between men and women, between the family and the Afghan society.
According to Dr. Marybeth Peebles, an associate professor at Marietta College, there are nine micro-cultures: socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, religion, gender/sexual orientation, language, exceptionality (mentally or physically disabled or gifted), age and geography.
What cultural groups do you identify with? Discuss your birth and family of origin. Who are your family members? Talk about the cultural history of your parents, grandparents, and if significant, your great-grandparents. Where are they from? What is the primary language, race, religion, culture of your origin? Describe your upbringing. What do you remember about the neighborhood(s) in which you lived? What ethnic groups resided therein? Was there a predominant group? What do your recall about your neighborhood: focus in particular regarding attitudes about those who were “different” from you? What was the talk at the dinner table? Were there any teachings that may influence how you feel about any group outside your own?
Examine the subgroups (posted on Blackboard under this week’s folder) and your roles within them, in relation to each micro-culture. The subgroups, are where you fall in the micro-culture.
Consider how your experiences within the cultural subgroups that you inhabit have shaped your personality and identity in relation to others in your life who may fall into different cultural subgroups. For example, the only twins experience life differently than non-multiples.
Discuss your family culture in terms of values, beliefs, and goals about life success/failure that you have learned. What are some verbal and non-verbal communication skills you have learned from your family? How has your cultural background affected your present beliefs about yourself and others? Talk about how your cultural background has shaped your views about race, class, gender, ability, and sexuality? What messages did you receive about these topics growing up, and what are your current beliefs? How has your culture helped or hindered you in your schooling/teaching?
Conclude with a summary of your cultural identity based on experiences that you have discussed. Wrap up the discussion neatly and succinctly.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Bookseller of Kabul
The Taliban instituted many restrictions on books and printed materials.
Pick one of the following questions. Answer in about 50-75 words. Due 6 p.m. Sunday.
1. How did these policies affect Sultan Khan?
2. What impact did they have on education in Afghanistan?
3. How were things changing during the time the author spent with the bookseller's family?
Pick one of the following questions. Answer in about 50-75 words. Due 6 p.m. Sunday.
1. How did these policies affect Sultan Khan?
2. What impact did they have on education in Afghanistan?
3. How were things changing during the time the author spent with the bookseller's family?
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
News stories related to Kabul
We’re Not Winning. It’s Not Worth It.
Here’s how to draw down in Afghanistan.
by Richard N. Haass Newsweek, July 18, 2010
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images A U.S. soldier in Jeluwar, Afghanistan
GOP chairman Michael Steele was blasted by fellow Republicans recently for describing Afghanistan as “a war of Obama’s choosing,” and suggesting that the United States would fail there as had many other outside powers. Some critics berated Steele for his pessimism, others for getting his facts wrong, given that President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan soon after 9/11. But Steele’s critics are the ones who are wrong: the RNC chair was more correct than not on the substance of his statement, if not the politics.
The war being waged by the United States in Afghanistan today is fundamentally different and more ambitious than anything carried out by the Bush administration. Afghanistan is very much Barack Obama’s war of choice, a point that the president underscored recently by picking Gen. David Petraeus to lead an intensified counterinsurgency effort there. After nearly nine years of war, however, continued or increased U.S. involvement in Afghanistan isn’t likely to yield lasting improvements that would be commensurate in any way with the investment of American blood and treasure. It is time to scale down our ambitions there and both reduce and redirect what we do.
Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban
By Aryn Baker Thursday, TIME, Jul. 29, 2010
The Taliban pounded on the door just before midnight, demanding that Aisha, 18, be punished for running away from her husband's house. They dragged her to a mountain clearing near her village in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, ignoring her protests that her in-laws had been abusive, that she had no choice but to escape. Shivering in the cold air and blinded by the flashlights trained on her by her husband's family, she faced her spouse and accuser. Her in-laws treated her like a slave, Aisha pleaded. They beat her. If she hadn't run away, she would have died. Her judge, a local Taliban commander, was unmoved. Later, he would tell Aisha's uncle that she had to be made an example of lest other girls in the village try to do the same thing. The commander gave his verdict, and men moved in to deliver the punishment. Aisha's brother-in-law held her down while her husband pulled out a knife. First he sliced off her ears. Then he started on her nose. Aisha passed out from the pain but awoke soon after, choking on her own blood. The men had left her on the mountainside to die. (See managing editor Richard Stengel's message to readers about this story's cover image.)
This didn't happen 10 years ago, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. It happened last year.
Bookseller of Kabul
Timeline of the War in Afghanistan
(October 7, 2001–Present; 8 years, 314 days)
Condensed Timeline
1989 Soviet Troops withdraw
9/11/01 Attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon
10/7/01 Beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom
11/9/01 Battle for Mazar-i-Sharif, first substantial landing of US ground forces
11/12/01 Fall of Kabul (Osama bin Laden flees to Tora Bora?)
11/16/01 Substantial bombardment of Tora Bora by USAF
11/16/01 Fall of Kunduz and the Pakistani Airlift of Evil
late 11/01 Fall of Kandahar (Taliban stronghold), 1st USMC FOB (Camp Rhino)
12/12/01 Stiff resistance at Tora Bora, Osama bin Laden escapes Tora Bora to Pakistan?
12/5/01 Bonn Agreement forms interim Transitional Administration. Karzai named Chairman of 29-member governing committee
12/20/01 UN authorization of ISAF
3/2/02 Operation Anaconda from established airbases at Bagram (Kabul) and Kandahar. Coalition troops number 10,000. Offensive against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces entrenched in the mountains of Shahi-Kot
’03-’05 Renewed Taliban insurgency, recruitment of students from Pakistani madrassas
10/9/04 Hamid Karzai elected President (purple fingers)
’06 NATO forces (from ISAF) take over southern Afghanistan and achieve tactical victories but fail to defeat Taliban forces.
early ’07 Coalition offensive. People begin to realize that the number of Taliban forces is not a fixed number.
’08 British and US Troop Surge. US troop numbers climb to 48,250 in 6/08.
9/08 President Bush authorizes US raids against militants in Pakistan
1/09 More troops sent to southern Afghanistan by Bush and Obama. Gen. McKiernan calls for doubling US troop numbers. Ambassador Eikenberry deeply concerned about Karzai government
8/10/09 Gen. McChrystal says that the US is not winning the war.
8/20/09 Presidential Elections. Karzai reelected in a “generally fair, but not free” election.
12/1/09 President Obama announces 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
1/26/10 Karzai announces peace effort aimed at Taliban
7/25/10 Wikileaks disclosure – 90,000 secret documents reveal details of civilian casualties, and the extent of the collaboration between the Taliban and the Pakistani ISI
(October 7, 2001–Present; 8 years, 314 days)
Condensed Timeline
1989 Soviet Troops withdraw
9/11/01 Attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon
10/7/01 Beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom
11/9/01 Battle for Mazar-i-Sharif, first substantial landing of US ground forces
11/12/01 Fall of Kabul (Osama bin Laden flees to Tora Bora?)
11/16/01 Substantial bombardment of Tora Bora by USAF
11/16/01 Fall of Kunduz and the Pakistani Airlift of Evil
late 11/01 Fall of Kandahar (Taliban stronghold), 1st USMC FOB (Camp Rhino)
12/12/01 Stiff resistance at Tora Bora, Osama bin Laden escapes Tora Bora to Pakistan?
12/5/01 Bonn Agreement forms interim Transitional Administration. Karzai named Chairman of 29-member governing committee
12/20/01 UN authorization of ISAF
3/2/02 Operation Anaconda from established airbases at Bagram (Kabul) and Kandahar. Coalition troops number 10,000. Offensive against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces entrenched in the mountains of Shahi-Kot
’03-’05 Renewed Taliban insurgency, recruitment of students from Pakistani madrassas
10/9/04 Hamid Karzai elected President (purple fingers)
’06 NATO forces (from ISAF) take over southern Afghanistan and achieve tactical victories but fail to defeat Taliban forces.
early ’07 Coalition offensive. People begin to realize that the number of Taliban forces is not a fixed number.
’08 British and US Troop Surge. US troop numbers climb to 48,250 in 6/08.
9/08 President Bush authorizes US raids against militants in Pakistan
1/09 More troops sent to southern Afghanistan by Bush and Obama. Gen. McKiernan calls for doubling US troop numbers. Ambassador Eikenberry deeply concerned about Karzai government
8/10/09 Gen. McChrystal says that the US is not winning the war.
8/20/09 Presidential Elections. Karzai reelected in a “generally fair, but not free” election.
12/1/09 President Obama announces 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
1/26/10 Karzai announces peace effort aimed at Taliban
7/25/10 Wikileaks disclosure – 90,000 secret documents reveal details of civilian casualties, and the extent of the collaboration between the Taliban and the Pakistani ISI
Friday, September 3, 2010
Epic Poem
Everyone is to write one chapter. All work is due by 6 p.m. Monday. Chapters should be abut 100 words in the free form style we have noted in Bikeman.
From the handout (the complete document is on Blackboard)
Epic is a long poem which deals with the doings characters from either legend or history. It is generally war-like that involves multiple secondary characters, and also gods and spirits. The following five are the epic conventions:
1. Invocation to muse: An epic starts with a prayer or invocation. The poet asks the muse/god to help him in his great work usually one of the nine daughters of Zeus. States the theme of the epic.
2. Narrative opens in media res. This means "in the middle of things," usually with the hero at his lowest point. Earlier portions of the story appear later as flashbacks.
2. Homeric Simile: Compared to an ordinary simile, a Homeric simile is expanded to such an extent that it becomes an another poem within the poem. A standard simile is a comparison using "like" or "as." An epic or Homeric simile is a more involved, ornate comparison, extended in great detail.
3. Athletic Games/Contest: Epic has to offer this convention. Milton makes use of it in his Paradise Lost Book-2 where he describes the fallen angels arranging an athletic meeting.
4. Adventurous Journey: The hero of an epic poem makes a journey. Heavy use of repetition and stock phrases. The poet repeats passages that consist of several lines in various sections of the epic and uses homeric epithets, short, recurrent phrases used to describe people, places, or things. Both made the poem easier to memorize.
From the handout (the complete document is on Blackboard)
Epic is a long poem which deals with the doings characters from either legend or history. It is generally war-like that involves multiple secondary characters, and also gods and spirits. The following five are the epic conventions:
1. Invocation to muse: An epic starts with a prayer or invocation. The poet asks the muse/god to help him in his great work usually one of the nine daughters of Zeus. States the theme of the epic.
2. Narrative opens in media res. This means "in the middle of things," usually with the hero at his lowest point. Earlier portions of the story appear later as flashbacks.
2. Homeric Simile: Compared to an ordinary simile, a Homeric simile is expanded to such an extent that it becomes an another poem within the poem. A standard simile is a comparison using "like" or "as." An epic or Homeric simile is a more involved, ornate comparison, extended in great detail.
3. Athletic Games/Contest: Epic has to offer this convention. Milton makes use of it in his Paradise Lost Book-2 where he describes the fallen angels arranging an athletic meeting.
4. Adventurous Journey: The hero of an epic poem makes a journey. Heavy use of repetition and stock phrases. The poet repeats passages that consist of several lines in various sections of the epic and uses homeric epithets, short, recurrent phrases used to describe people, places, or things. Both made the poem easier to memorize.
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